Timeline (how long your order took to process): The costume was ordered on a Saturday and arrived on the following Thursday. (It was in-stock, not special ordered).

Describe your Experience: I had been looking to commission the jacket from Juvenile for awhile but all of the quotes I received were from commissioners who didn't quite seem up to the task. Ideally, I wanted something that could double as actual clothing ~ so I didn't want anything too costumey or stuffy. I've had one mediocre experience with Cocosilver in the past which turned me off more than a bit, but on seeing they had added a Juvenile set to their page, reconsidered.

The costume was in stock, meaning there'd be no danger of the 2.5 month wait on the last costume I ordered and the photos provided made it look both well-made and functional. And hey, it comes with the screen-printed t-shirt! BONUS!

I placed my order, paid via furikomi and had the package delivered to me within the week by a very friendly deliveryman who must think I am the biggest dork in the universe ^^;;

Pros: It's COMFY! The fabric chosen is lightweight and amazingly soft. It photographs well, looks heavier than it is and really is just FABULOUS to the touch. I'm still wearing the T-shirt... good freaking luck getting me out of it. I will wear this t-shirt until there are ginormous holes worn into every seam! The fit is equally awesome. I guess I'm lucky to be ~exactly~ a Cocosilver large <3

The details are great, the coloring is pretty good too. It's well-made. It looks awesome on.

The price 12,900 yen plus shipping for a t-shirt and a hoodie is alright... not awesome ~ but considering how much better cocosilver's work is than most other Chinese factory costumers -- the price is fair.

Cons: The t-shirt is a bit greener than it looks in the photos on cocosilver's site.

The hood does not zip and unzip into a sailor collar shape like the jacket in the official references. (I knew this before ordering)

But the biggest dissappointment is that the jacket has a lot of fake-outs and shortcuts which keep it from functioning as much more than a costume. The pockets are convincing but are dummies... there are no real pockets. The buttons are also fake ~ meaning the jacket can't be closed or even partially closed. This also means the way it hangs open partially obscures the "L" on the jacket front from most angles.

Final Comments: It fits great and it looks like a million bucks on. I recieved it promptly and it's well-made. I love the costume and will wear it more than I probably should (though not as much as I would if the jacket were more jacket-y *sulk*). Cocosilver and I can be friends again... albeit cautious ones.

Name of Commissioner: Kukii-san
Website/C.com gallery: http://www.cosplay.com/member/41723/
Character commissioned and series/video game (please include if this was the entire costume, just a jacket, prop, accessory, wig, etc.) : Wig of Fran from Final Fantasy XII
Links to picture(s) of your commissioned item: http://www.cosplay.com/photo/2632658/
Timeline (how long your order took to process) : I didn't need the wig in any hurry, so I gave the commissioner a wide timeline. I placed my order in February 2010 and received the completed wig in July 2010, as requested.
Describe your Experience. Pros, Cons, Comments.: Kukii-san was attentive, helpful, and went above and beyond the call of duty. She patiently answered my questions, offered advice for wear/care of the wig, and was a very friendly person to communicate with. ^^
Final Grade: A+

Timeline: I ordered the costume in mid-April and arrived in late July. I originally had the deadline for June 30, 2010, but because of money issues, was moved to mid-July.
Describe your experience: After having a not-so-great experience with a previous commissioner, I tried my best to research good commissioners here on cos.com. I came across cosplaycommish's page and I was honestly pretty impressed with her gallery, so I commissioned her to make one of my dream costumes, Sera's Victoria's yellow uniform from the Hellsing OVA. I had total faith in this commissioner...for the first few weeks. The months passed by and when I finally received the costume, I was just totally disappointed and more bummed that I spent so much for something I definitely don't think was worth it.

Pros: When I did sporadically e-mail her for progress, she responded rather quickly. The costume's material was quite nice and had the uniform look I wanted. In addition, I was happy with the fact that Mandy let me make partial payments because after all, I'm a broke college student ^^;

Cons: I feel kind of bad spouting so many bad aspects, but I honestly was just so incredibly displeased with this costume. I'm sorry folks, but it has to be said :/

First of all (and I'm sure many can agree with this), I think at least a steady stream of communication is something that is wanted in a commissioner. I didn't really get any updates from Mandy, only recieved them when I became incredibly nervous and decided to e-mail her myself. Most of the time, she would simply say to please allow her more time. So of course, I became a bit more antsy as to what the costume was turning out like. Heading towards the end of May, I asked for any sort of progress info and she wrote something along of the lines of 'i'm not really worried about the deadline yet lol'
.... 0_0'

Secondly, the costume itself was just...not what I was expecting. The skirt fit perfectly, but was long, and I was swimming in the shirt...the bust and stomach area was huge! I don't think my measurements were THAT far off ^^; Also, the fingers on the gloves were oddly shaped like spatulas...

Third...and this is one of the biggest peeves I have; On the sleeve and chest's patch, it reads "Hellsing" (which in my mind makes perfect sense since that's the name of the organization and anime). I got a patch that said "HLURO". HLURO. When I saw the photo of the costume, I pointed it out to Mandy, and she said that it would be fixed. Okay, no problem, I thought...simple mistake, right? Later on, she said she would have to charge me extra to fix it, which honestly made me angry. Why would she charge me more for something that was her mistake? After all, if she was unsure about what the patch said, she could've simply asked me what it said rather than guessing blindly. >:[

Name of Commissioner : Arda-Wigs
Website/C.com gallery : http://arda-wigs.com/
Character commissioned and series/video game : Ferrari in Ash Blonde (62)
Links to picture(s) of your commissioned item : http://i31.tinypic.com/96jr00.jpg
Timeline (how long your order took to process) : We had a bit of a problem that was totally not there fault. The post office held it for some odd reason, but when she got it sent out it only took a week.
Pros: It's one of the nicest wigs I've ever had on. Unlike most wigs you get on ebay it's very big and would probably fit anyones head. It's also very nice to have on. It's thick, and the curls stay in place (I even wore it in the rain!)
They are also very nice to deal with, very quick with emails, etc.
Cons: None!
Final Grade: A+

Timeline (how long your order took to process): I ordered the costume on February 2nd (which was a horrible idea because apparently, it was chinese new year... and hello cosplay is located in china) and it came March 9th.

Pros: The costume was beautiful, I must say. A few things wrong with it, but I'm not big on detail. The top was very comfortable to stay in for a long time. The skirt fit me very well.

Cons: The top was just a bit too large. The skirt and the arm things were the same sticky material, so they kept getting stuck together. The socks had no feet....

Timeline (how long your order took to process): The order was placed through otamap and took about one week to process even with some restocking issues. Shipping was within Japan.

Pros: Otamap offers a very good 10% discount on all prichara wigs, making them even more reasonable than usual. The military medi usually costs 4,935 yen but we got ours for about 4,100 each. We'd been looking for some slightly darker Kagamine wigs for our Love is War costumes and had seen the lighter version of this wig in-person at our local Animate. From the look of the picture, we'd never have thought they would work, but taking one in-hand changed our mind. The medi looks scraggly, but the layers can be fairly easily tamed with some heat styling and a bit of product.

The color is quite deep and has a very nice look outdoors. As always, Prichara's wigs are well-rooted, well-cut, nicely styled and look better on heads than they do in packages.

Cons: The color makes me very nervous. Especially indoors under flourescent lights, it seems to be much darker than the image on the website. I understand where the coloring discrepancy comes into play since I can see the difference myself when I walk the wigs out to my balcony and back. The color is hard to pin down. But I'm afraid it may also be too dark... I'll have them sun-bleaching on the balcony for the next three weeks, in any case.

The random cut leaves the wig a bit short on top and with a lot of flyaways in the event you want to make complicated styles. I'm going to have a bit of trouble coaxing it into a ponytail for Len. Highly recommend a more consistantly cut style for updos and multi-length styling.

Final Comments: The medi will work wonderfully for any character with messy, tousled shoulder-length hair and would also make a great base for a mid-length random spikey style. The milky gold color would be just perfect for Dino from KHR and the cut lends itself well to characters like Konoe from Lamento. Had I seen one before buying my Zephyr, I may also have chosen one shade lighter for Flandre. It remains to see whether it will work for the Kagamines ~ but I suppose if it doesn't, the misstep is my own, not Prichara's.

Name of Commissioner: Cosplaywig
Website/C.com gallery: http://stores.ebay.com/COSPLAY-WIG
Character commissioned and series/video game: Short layer PALE BLONDE wig cosplay new (not currently in stock)
Links to picture(s) of your commissioned item: http://www.cosplay.com/photo/2555418/ please ignore my brown eyebrow xD i was just trying the wig on
Timeline: dont remember exact dates but took 1 1/2 - 2 weeks to get to me

pros: the shipping was fairly quick (its from hongkong) and the sizing was actually fairly nice and roomy the fibers on the wig are reallllyyyyy soft and im very satisified with my wiggy plus the wig i got looked just like the picture, color, style and length wise. also the price was really nice and reasonable (paid 29.99 free shipping because it was on clearance sale.)

cons: the wig is slightly thin in the back but its really not that noticable.

comments: cosplaywig is now the place i go to buy my wigs im definitely buying from them again in the future!

Timeline (how long your order took to process): The lucky bag was ordered on a Monday afternoon and arrived the following Wednesday afternoon.

Describe your Experience: Some Japanese cosplayers told me about HEAL-ALLs periodical lucky bags and told me they were currently on-sale. Normally lucky bags are a New Years only thing, so I was a little surprised! The deals are usually to unload extra stock in a more attractive way, but HEAL ALL was offering so ~much~ in their lucky bags that it was too good to pass up.

1 lucky bag was advertised to contain 3 costume items (your choice of size and character-gender), 1 wig and 2~5 extra support items (panties or patches). The order system, through rakuten is extremely easy and takes a matter of minutes if you already have an account. I chose collect-on-delivery, so there was no banking to navigate. I just paid the deliveryman two days later.

On unwrapping the package I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had included, not 2~5 support items but at least 10 O-o Granted, I didn't need any of them, but free stuff is always nice. Costumes were well-packaged and arrived clean, labelled, in the right sizes and for-the-most part unwrinkled.

Pros: HEAL-ALL is pretty transparent. It's obvious that the images provided are of the costumes they actually sell. Their models are credited by cos-name and represent a refreshing variety of sizes and shapes. The prices a bit high for the quality, but they often hold promotions and sales to make their prices more attractive. As long as shiny fabrics and gaudy trims are avoided, most of their costumes actually look like they might even have cost more than they did.

A surprisingly wide range of different fabrics and construction methods are used in making the costumes and not everything is matte polyester and satin. Embroidery is embroidered, not painted on and no materials are recycled. Everything is clean, bright and in colors that are fairly accurate. Fasteners are well attatched and completely serviceable. Even white fabric is thick enough so as not to be transparent. Ironically, HEAL ALL's costumes are much more durable in their look than costumes I've paid 3 times as much for from commissioners. The cuts of all of the costumes I recieved are also incredibly flattering. I was tempted to keep the KAITO costume just because of how tiny it makes my waist look ^^;;;

The Howl shirt and jacket are actually quite well-made, sharp-looking and spot-on accuracy-wise (aside from a descrepancy in the lining color). I'll definately wear it and I think I've gotten my money's worth out of it alone.

Cons: Essentially HEAL-ALL is a bagged-costume vendor. ie. they sell the Japanese cosplay version of bagged Halloween costumes. Materials are the cheapest of their type available, manufacturing is done in China in bulk and the costumes are often missing more minute details. While construction is solid, it is also impersonal and many designs have been simplified to simplify the resulting manufacturing process. Some perfectly great costumes (like the Cendrillion KAITO) are marred by ghastly trims or questionable fabric choices (their satin costumes are unsightly... but luckily, few and far between).

Their cheaper wigs are unuseable for serious cosplayers. Stay far, far away. I haven't seen the more expensive options, but I'd be just as wary of them. H.A. is not a good place to get a wig. While the price is right for a beginner or a Halloween costume and the wig caps themselves are solidly made, the fibers are thin, fragile and sparsely woven. The wig cap shows even in distance shots.

The Sweet Pool shirt is very well-made and the color is lovely but, unfortunately, the uniform insignia has been cheaply/quickly rendered and white threads show through the embroidery. It's still a cool shirt ~ but I'd be pretty pissed if I'd paid the advertised 5,800 yen for it.

Final Comments: H.A. is a great go-to for particularly good sales and flattering budget costumes for parties. It may also be an option for pieces with a simple cut and matte finish at the last minute or to compliment others' costumes without paying through the nose. I'd stay away from their embroidery and wigs, though.

Name of Commissioner: KawaiiRiceBall
Website/C.com gallery: sites.google.com/site/kawaiiriceballshop
Character commissioned and series/video game: Serah Farron's necklace from Final Fantasy XIII
Links to picture(s) of your commissioned item: http://orangedoom.deviantart.com/art...lace-173584226
Timeline: 2 weeks or so.
Describe your Experience. Pros, Cons, Comments: I started off with an ad in the marketplace for the jewelery of Serah's. I went through a few people seeing how their work looks and wasnt totally satisfied with some. KawaiiRiceBall showed me her necklace that she made and I was very impressed, so I asked her to make it for me. She is excellent at communicating, and great at what she does. I highly recommend her if you are looking for a jewelery commission.
Final Grade: A+

Name of Commissioner: 2aplus2Website/C.com gallery:http://myworld.ebay.com/2aplus2Character commissioned and series/video game: Ventus from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (whole costume)Links to picture(s) of your commissioned item: Clothes, accessories, back of the pantsTimeline: 24 days (ordered on the 6th of July, costume finished the 26th, arrived at the 30th)

I hadn't heard of this seller before, but since they have only positive feedback, I decided to give it a shot... and I'm glad I did.Pros:
-Spot-on sizing, at least on the clothes. The shoulder armor and wristband are way too big and the shoe covers are too small, but I didn't give them any measurements on that, so that's my fault.
-Same costume as shown in the preview, right down to type of fabric, shape and color.
-Very comfortable use of materials; no use of cheap satin or anything like that.
-Unbelieveably fast shipping! It says that items usually take 12-24 business days to reach its destination, but I had mine four days after it got sent.
Cons:
-Shipping price, oh gawd. 55$.
-The beige pattern on the pants are wrong; it's not supposed to be symmetrical in the back. However, it's easily fixable as I can just cut the excess away.

Comments: I'm very pleased with how this commission turned out. There was little communication, but that didn't bother me too much as I never e-mailed them anyway. The estimated time for their costumes is 15 days, but that seems to be the norm for most of them regardless of detail, and Ventus' design is like... detail hell.

I ordered a custom size, but like the slowpoke I am, I forgot to provide said measurements with my payment. 2 minutes later I got an e-mail asking for them, so at least that assured me that I wasn't going to get a pre-made costume.

What amuses me is, when I opened the package I found a tag for a wig from "Cosplayholic"... but no wig. I hadn't ordered any wig, either, so I have no idea how that got into there. |D

Timeline (how long your order took to process): The order was placed on Monday and arrived via courier on Tuesday

The military medi shaped up into a beautiful Len wig in the back but doesn't have nearly enough hair to do all of the spikes and sculpting I'd like in the front. The few spikes I did make left the wig looking a bit bear and the cap exposed. Beside myself with worry about how the wig turned out, I decided to try and fix it by ordering some extensions from prichara directly. I used my points from a previous purchase to take 312 yen off the cost... but buying single items is still prohibitively expensive. This time it couldn't be helped. With the COD fee and shipping included the cost was 2,838 yen.

Pros: The wefts are thick and incredibly long. There's more than enough hair here to cover my sparse patches. If I decide to be ambitious, I can cut the wefts in half lengthwise and create a double-set with the glue and clearfile method.

The match is perfect, the packing is more than sufficient and the quality of the product is high. The order came packaged with a geniunely adorable necklace of black metal hearts that I'll actually wear. It was a nice way to take the sting out of the price of ordering only one item alone.

Cons: None really, aside from the high price of ordering one item at a time.

Final Comments: Ordering from otamap gets you better discounts, but Prichara offers better point returns and free gifts when you order from them directly.

Timeline: March 11th 2010 [I asked Nic quotes on different costumes]
March 13th 2010 [We start commission discussion + planned payments]
March 18th 2010 [Photos & measurements are sent]
May 6th 2010 [First progress pictures of the costume from Nic]
May 8th-13th 2010 [ Nic and I agree on different materials and payments]
July 9th 2010 [Progress pictures on costume with new material]
July 11th 2010 [Final Pictures are provided]
July 11th-16th 2010 [Shipping information and shipment is made]
July 29th-30th 2010 [Costume received and tried on]

Deadline: April 15th-May 1st 2010 *At the quickest* However I never needed it right away so dates were flexible!

Cost: Initial quote: $200.00 [According to pictures provided]
Final Payment: $215.00 [We came to an agreement in change of materials and Nic was amazing enough to provide me an offer that would keep the cost at a minimum even when we agreed on redoing the costume ]

Pros: Is quick to respond with estimates on your commission
Responds to your emails in a timely manner
Works out a deal that works best for both you the customer and him (the commissioner)
Will provide color swatches (through pictures by email) for fabrics upon request
Affordable prices
Beautiful construction of your costume
The fitting of your costume will be true to the measurements you provide

Cons: Communication could use a little improvement ,

I will add however that YOU as the person who commissions from a commissioner should be able to tell your commissioner what you would like from them and make sure all of your questions are answered !
I did not send fabric swatch pictures and color choices to Nic out of belief that the pictures I provided (a full folder 10+) would speak for itself on what type of goal I was going for,and we stumbled upon a disagreement on fabric choices when progress pictures were provided,which sadly ended in a redo of most of the costume.

*I had asked for latex looking material through our initial emails but after making the first payment I did not ask Nic what kind of fabric and colors he would use for my costume*

= And a little bit of organizing! Upon the last payment discussion Nic requested I go back through our emails and get back to him the payments we agreed on so I could finalize the payment (we had a long history of emails,about 5 months worth),which left me both somewhat confused but also felt like he trusted me to get back with him on money matters...so not too much of a con itself but just something I found worth mentioning.

The costume:

It fits me rather decently ! By far the gloves and the shorts are my favorite part of the costume! [since they look amazingly accurate]
The Tank Top is lined on the inside to keep the material from being uncomfortable! [definitely a bonus!]
The costume is form fitting as requested!
The Backpack is a little bigger than the original size but the color is beautiful and it had a zipper on the inside to close it
The costume came folded INSIDE the backpack *it was definitely a treat to see that *
The Belt and top only need the smallest adjustments [top needs adjustment towards the neck area at the back and at the waist area]
[The belt needs a small adjustment @ the holsters and the waist drops to keep it melded against my waist]

Notes:
Even though I had given Nic a deadline towards May I was never in a hurry to have my costume finished since the photoshoot schedule was always tentative and I was not attending a con.

In the beginning I was slightly scared since I had never commissioned a costume but towards the end the progress proved to be worth the wait and the payments I had made.

I was at times too excited and asked about various quotes before our contract and during,all of which Nic responded to without a hitch and he was always friendly about it!

When I opened up the package I was filled with joy! The colors were rich and beautiful and all of the details were accounted for! from the cut and style from the top and shorts to the way the gloves were a little bit bigger on my hands...just like the models in the pictures!

Grade:B+

Nic is a great commissioner! I give him a B+ because he has room for improvement on communication [Mainly the way his emails are presented,what questions are made and how he organizes information from his customers ]

Everything else is great! Reference pictures,Timely responses,Costume construction and Prices make him more than suitable for a commissioner that you can count on for your cosplay needs ^__^

I would definitely do business again with Nic without hesitation!

I learned a lot from requesting my first commission and how Nic approached my requests make the investment worth the time,money and communication that is put into a commission!

__________________The Hume's ever skew history's weave. With haste they move through too-short lives. Driven to err by base desires, towards waste and wasting on they run. Undying, we Occuria light the path for wayward sons of man. Oft did we pass judgment on them so that Ivalice might endure. Eternal, we are hist'ry's stewards, to set the course and keep it true. The chosen is our hand - our fist - to let live some and to crush the rest.